Sorry Mum, no iPhone 7. The Apple store’s down

The new MacBook Pro is being billed as so good you won't want to spend your Apple cash on anything else

Apple’s sitting on a pile of cash the size of Finland’s economy, so clearly disappointing a few customers won’t hurt the bottom line. The Cupertino-based tech giant took its online store down ahead of a major announcement today, asking customers to check back later.

When #GNTECH tried to buy an iPhone 7 for its Mum as a welcome-to-Dubai gift, it was re-routed to the US store and shown a message: “We’ve got something special in store for you. And we can’t wait for you to see it. Please check back soon.” The message flashed up in several different languages, but not Arabic.

Today’s event is pegged as a major announcement, and fanboys have been convinced for weeks that it’s got something to do with a new MacBook Pro. This is based on the invite for today, which featured the tagline “Hello Again”. The first Mac was introduced in 1984 with a simple Hello.

Clearly, Apple’s trying to convince us that the new products being revealed today are so cool we wouldn’t to buy anything else. Even from Apple itself.

You could spend the hours leading up to the launch debating whether it’s smart marketing, but with that aforementioned bank account the size of Finland, it’s a risk Apple can afford to take.